sotfminifandomcom-20200213-history
Robert "Bobby" Goldman
Name: Robert “Bobby” Goldman Gender: Male Age: 16 (will turn 17 during the game/show) Grade: 11 School: Detroit Central High School Hobbies and Interests: Cooking, Firefighting, Track & Field Appearance: He is a bit taller than the average at 180cm (5'11”) and he has a runner's physique, weighing 82kg (180 pounds). His hair is a very dark brown and kept trimmed short, almost to a military style buzz-cut. His eyes are so dark a brown that they appear black, and they are emphasized by dark, bushy eyebrows. He has begun shaving, because when he doesn't, he has whispy, uneven-looking black facial hair. He has an oval face which looks just a bit more mature than his 16 years. His nose is just a little larger than most (longer, not wider), and can be a focal point for teasing. He wears mostly flannel shirts and a jean jacket, blue jeans (sometimes with rips in the knees), and sneakers. When he's at the track, he wears high quality running shoes, track shorts and a t-shirt; he usually keeps that outfit in his sports bag. The jean jacket is such a fixture of his appearance that many of his fellow students would be surprised to see him without it. Biography: Abraham and Ruth Goldman have three children. Robert is the oldest by five years. Iris is currently 11, and Delilah is 8. Abraham and Ruth married when they were 23 and Ruth became pregnant shortly thereafter, so she has never had a job other than as a part-time waitress. For the past 17 years, she has been a stay-at-home mother. Abraham Goldman became a volunteer firefighter at the age of 19, was promoted to Sergeant when he was 24, and then promoted to Lieutenant when he was 32. He has been a Lieutenant in the Central Detroit FD for the past eight years and is starting to become frustrated waiting for his promotion to Captain. He has been mostly satisfied with his career, and is always buoyed by the knowledge that he has helped people in desperate need. Robert was a very energetic little boy who loved to run around his neighborhood pretending to be an airplane or to be on a motorcycle. His mother tried to occupy his attention by teaching him to cook, but after absorbing those lessons, he grew restless again. He had only superficial friendships in his early childhood because his mother was uneasy with the idea of him having close black friends, or the other children's parents being uneasy with their kids being close friends with a Jewish child. Robert didn't understand what the problem was until he turned thirteen. On the Sabbath closest to his birthday, Robert had his Bar Mitzvah at his local synagogue. He noticed that none of his black friends from the neighborhood showed up at all. The only attendees were family and other members of the congregation. He started asking why, and when he finally confronted his mother, she didn't have any good answers. She was bright enough to realize that she didn't have any good answers, though, and began trying to change her prejudices. After that point, she relented and allowed Robert's friends to have sleep-overs and the like, though her acceptance did nothing to change the attitudes of the other kids' mothers. Robert's father recognized what Robert was dealing with and shared some of his own experiences with his son. Robert was the only Jewish firefighter in his department, and was frequently the subject of various forms of mild discrimination and harassment. His father was able to ignore it because he knew that he was saving even the lives of people who hated him on a weekly basis. Robert also began his freshman year of high school when he was thirteen. He felt some of that discrimination as a subtle stand-off-ishness from most of the other students and even some of the teachers and staff at Detroit Central. He sensed that if he didn't do something to prove his worth, he would be ostracized for four years. Detroit Central had a pretty good sports program, but Robert didn't think that he could shine as part of a team, so he tried out for Track & Field. He turned out to be a pretty good runner, but a great hurdler and long-jumper. The coach, Mr. Jenkins, even allowed Robert to know that he was impressed. In his sophomore year, Robert was doing well on the Track team, and was competing regularly at the regional level, though he was not good enough to win outright. He was putting so much effort into his running and other athletics that his grades started to slip, and he got a few Ds in Spanish and History. His parents quickly threatened to pull him from the Track team if he didn't bring up his grades. Robert did so by largely sacrificing his social life, ignoring his friends and hunkering down in the library or at home. By his junior year, Robert had stabilized his grades to around a B- average which satisfied his parents. He started hanging out a bit more with the other students on the Track team, but all that changed when he got his first girlfriend. Jazmine Johnson was an attractive black girl who was willing to date across racial and religious lines. That sort of interracial dating was a trouble spot for many of the other students, though. Several times during the year, jocks confronted Robert about his dating preference, and twice those encounters turned into fistfights. Robert lost the first (though not without dealing some damage of his own) but won the second (though not without receiving a few bruises from his opponent). Robert's girlfriend was receiving some harassment as well, and after a handful of dates (some of which went well, and some of which did not), she broke up with him. Robert was incredibly frustrated by these events. He thought that he had earned the right to date her because of the grief and bruising that he was tolerating. After their breakup, Robert fell into a funk of depression. He only recovered from it during the summer by telling himself that he did not need any girlfriend or wife in order to be a complete person. The harassment was greatly reduced later in Robert's junior year, partly because during the year, he had qualified to go to the state-wide Track meet by winning the regionals in long-jump and finishing second in 110m hurdles. Robert knows that with his only so-so grades and only one extracurricular activity, few colleges would be eager to accept him. Instead, Robert has his heart set on joining the Fire Department in the footsteps of his father. He has looked up to his father to the point of hero-worship for years, and he can think of no career that would be as fulfilling as saving people's lives the same way that his Dad does. Robert has taken a part time position volunteering at his local fire station where he helps to cook some of the meals and clean the kitchen. He doesn't mind that he is not paid for his work; he is merely trying to gain favor with the firefighters so that he'll be accepted after he graduates from high school. Robert has heard that there are female firefighters, but there are none in the fire station he volunteers at nor in his father's department. He has seen that his mother and sisters are just not as interested in physical activities like running as he is. And at school, the girls' track team is just not up to the boys' standard. He tries to be respectful of girls, particularly the ones he is attracted to, but in his heart he knows that in general girls are just not as physically capable as boys are. His mother is less than eager for Robert to follow in her husband's career path. She has worried for his health and safety for as long as they have been wed, and she worries that her son is so zealous in his pursuit as to unnecessarily endanger himself. She has tried to persuade him away from firefighting as a career, but Robert thinks that she does not respect what her own husband's profession. Advantages: Robert is very fit and athletic and does not tire easily. He is not afraid of fire and knows how to control and put out small fires with blankets or chemical extinguishers. He knows how to prepare and cook a variety of foods, including a use of common spices. He is fair in a fistfight, though he has not been formally taught any sort of martial art. Disadvantages: Robert is somewhat sexist, believing that women and girls are physically inferior. He has a quick temper, and is not always able to restrain his fists when provoked. He does not have experience in how to work as a team player in order to cooperate to achieve a common goal. He may be looked down on by some in his class because he is Jewish and dated a girl of a different race. Designated Number: Grey Team no. 1 --- Designated Weapon: Shopping Cart Conclusion: That shopping cart won't do him much good here! Can Bobby can get over his inability to work together with his teammates, or will he be shunned and die alone? Mentor's Comment: Just because he's not a team player doesn't mean he doesn't have his uses. Actually, this just might be to our benefit... The above biography is as written by The Bearded One. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made. Evaluations Kills: '''Jacob Langston ' '''Killed By:' Amber Lyons' ' Collected Weapons: '''Shopping Cart (designated weapon), metal rods & plastic rod (from the Ski Lodge), copper pipe (from the Resort Hotel's kitchen. '''Allies: Enemies: Karen Ruiz Mid-game Evaluation: Post-Game Evaluation: Memorable Quotes: * " I tried to scavenge weapons where I could, but every time there's been a fight, I've had the weakest hand. Karen had a pistol; Odile had a pistol; even the two 'nimrods' at the hotel seemed to have a shotgun and some kind of machine gun." Other/Trivia Threads Below is a list of threads that contain Bobby, in chronological order Sandbox: *When It's Time To Party We Will Party Hard! *Doorways SOTF-TV: *A Cold and Lonely Road *Establishing Shot *Friendly Fire *The Walking Dead *Peers *Metanoia *Transitive Bodies *As Cold as Silence *The Wild Hunt *Wrong Direction *The Bagman's Gambit Your Thoughts Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Bobby. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here! Category:SOTF-TV Category:Characters